Monday, 16 February 2015

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Brookfield Demon Murder

Brookfield, CT - On February 16, 1981 the 193-year old town
of Brookfield, CT experienced its
first murder when 19-year old Arne
Johnson stabbed his landlord Alan
Bono five times in the chest with a pocket knife. But that wasn’t the only
precedent the act would set. In late October, facing a charge of manslaughter
Johnson’s defense entered the plea of Not Guilty - by reason of demonic
possession.

Roughly
a year earlier, Ed and Lorraine Warren
came to visit. You might remember them as the subjects of the recent film The Conjuring or nearly any made-for-TV
program about ghosts or the paranormal in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s. Johnson’s
girlfriend (Debbie Glatzel)’s 11-year
old brother David Glatzel was being looked
at for demonic possession. The Warrens swore it was a genuine case, though it
seems they never met a paranormal case they didn’t love. But, it seemed the
exorcism didn’t take. After Catholic priests presided over the boy, the
infernal infection apparently remained. Arne, never particularly close to
David, took the initiative to call upon the demons to leave the boy’s body and
enter his own. Martin Minnella, Johnson’s
lawyer argued that they did just that.

That
decision turned the case into a national sideshow.

Minnella
had “tapes” (audio or video is unrevealed) of the exorcism. Minnella still
claims 34 years later that young David Glatzel spoke “the names of 42 demons in
Latin, and that the Brookfield Police Chief was going to testify that he saw
the child levitate”.

Minnella
claimed that ‘demonic possession’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘insanity’, he was out
to prove that demons exist. The Warrens also never seem to have met a camera
they didn’t love and embraced their potential role as star witnesses. Minnella
was prepared to have the Warrens testify to the existence of demons, and to
produce the recordings of the exorcism including Johnson’s “challenge” to the
demons but the plea was rejected by the court and the more conventional plea of
self-defence was entered in its place.

The
entire stabbing incident was found to be due to Bono’s having made an obscene
remark about Debbie Glatzel’s dress, which Johnson took exception to. The two
argued, things escalated, Bono wound up dead. Johnson was found guilty and served
five years in prison.

The
event gained colossal levels of media attention at the time and became known as
“the devil made me do it case”. It even spawned a 1983 made-for-TV movie
starring Kevin Bacon called The Demon Murder Case. It isn’t great.
It’s no ‘The Exorcist’ that’s for
sure, but tune in tomorrow for the real-life story that inspired the novel that
the film was based on …